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[Illustration: A molecule of a coal-tar dye]
The name of this is sodium ditolyl-disazo-beta-naphthylamine-
6-sulfonic-beta-naphthylamine-3.6-disulfonate.
These chemical names of organic compounds are discouraging to the
beginner and amusing to the layman, but that is because neither of them
realizes that they are not really words but formulas. They are
hyphenated because they come from Germany. The name given above is no
more of a mouthful than "a-square-plus-two-a-b-plus-b-square" or "Third
Assistant Secretary of War to the President of the United States of
America." The trade name of this dye is Brilliant Congo, but while that
is handier to say it does not mean anything. Nobody but an expert in
dyes would know what it was, while from the formula name any chemist
familiar with such compounds could draw its picture, tell how it would
behave and what it was made from, or even make it. The old alchemist was
a secretive and pretentious person and used to invent queer names for
the purpose of mystifying and awing the ignorant.


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